Those who visited and took part in EXCITED – the digital learning festival – would have heard from Ireland’s digital champion Lord David Puttnam CBE who in his speech on the Friday discussed the importance of changing how we run education in Ireland.
After a long day of inviting children from across the country to visit the inaugural EXCITED digital learning festival in Dublin Castle on the June bank holiday weekend, the evening’s events got underway to take a step back from just focusing on the children, to asking how the 500 teachers and influential people involved in the Irish education system can lead a change to integrate more digital learning within the system.
For the evening’s opening speech, Lord Puttnam addressed those at Dublin Castle about the importance of not letting Ireland fall behind other developing countries – with examples including Vietnam and Singapore – where digital education is rapidly being introduced whether through the students’ own means or with the help of their teachers who understand and pass on their passion for technology to their students.
In his speech, Lord Puttnam addressed the very worrying situation of the enormous gap that the internet, one of the world’s most important resources of the modern age, is only being accessed by 7pc of students in Irish schools.
Siliconrepublic.com went down to EXCITED to hear more of what he had to say about his ideas as Ireland’s digital champion on how we can turn Ireland into a leader in digital education.
EXCITED – Lord David Puttnam and the importance of digital education
